Writing Archives - Page 12 of 16 - Writing As A Second Career

Will Eating The Frogs First Help You Write More?

You’ve probably had it happen at least a few times in the last few months. It’s Sunday night. You look at the week ahead and think, OK, it’s not too crazy. I see an hour (or maybe two) when I can write.

Is your writing a frog or an ice cream sundae?

But then on Monday your boss hands you a new project, or your child gets the flu, or the roof starts leaking. That hour or so that looked open becomes a time for crisis management. On Tuesday you really need to get caught up on what you missed on Monday.

On Wednesday, time somehow gets away from you, and by Thursday you’re exhausted. You may as well just try again next week.

And so it goes when you’re juggling a full time regular job or profession and trying to write on the side.

Next Sunday we’ll talk more about where and how that time from Wednesday on disappeared.

But for today, let’s talk about frogs.

If you’ve read much on time management, you’ve probably heard the “eat the frogs first” approach. But in case not, here it is in a nutshell.

The idea is that most of us don’t want to eat frogs–the popularity of Hugh’s Frog Bar in Chicago notwithstanding. The frog represents the task you dread and keep putting off. But as you push it toward the end of your day, it weighs on you, sapping your energy and making you less productive. So if you eat the frog first thing in the morning, you feel better, work faster, get more done, and, in a way, create more time for what you love.

So can the frogs first theory help you write more or at least more often? To answer that, let’s first look at how you see your writing.

Is Your Writing A Frog?

First off, to you, is writing a frog? In other words, is it a task you want or need to do but dread? Or is it fun, a reward, what you long for, like an ice cream sundae? (If ice cream sundaes aren’t your thing, fill in your favorite food.)

To find out if writing is a frog for you, ask yourself:

Do you fear doing it “wrong?”
Are you worried you’ll freeze up and stare at the blank page for half an hour getting nowhere?
Does the idea of finishing a story or novel and getting a rejection or bad reviews keep you up at night?
Are you excited to sit down at the keyboard?
Does time fly when you start to write, so that you’re surprised to discover 30 minutes or an hour has passed?
Do you feel more relaxed and energized after you write?

If you answered yes to one or all of the first three questions, writing might be a frog. If you answered yes to one or more of the second three, you might be in ice cream sundae territory.

It’s not right or wrong to feel either way, and it might change depending what else is happening in your life or what project you’re working on. I feel a little froggy about non-fiction and outlining fiction. First drafting and editing (at least once I’ve decided where I’m going) is an ice cream sundae with super dark chocolate fudge sauce for me.

Making Good Use Of Your Frogs

For your froggy writing tasks, try eating the frog first. Yes, some days you’ll need to deal with the leaking roof. But the next day, rather than diving into your catch-up tasks, unless there’s a true emergency, start out with 30 minutes of eating the frog.

Choose one specific writing task or project, set your timer for 30 minutes, and do only that. See how much you get done and if the rest of your day goes more smoothly. If so, frogs first is your best approach.

If you still have trouble sitting down to write, try the bigger frog approach. Presumably you want to write or you wouldn’t be reading this article or struggling to fit in writing.

So think of that responsibility or task you’d really love to get rid of so you can write, but you’re struck with it. Maybe it’s filling out a report for your boss or ferrying your kids to a track meet or cleaning the bathroom. That’s the bigger frog.

First thing in the morning, think about that task looming over you and how you can put it off for 30 minutes if you write instead. That should get you sitting at the keyboard (assuming it won’t make your kids late for the track meet.)

If that works for you, keep using the bigger frog approach.

Ice Cream With A Cherry On Top

If you love writing, if it’s your catnip or ice cream sundae and you still put it off, your issue may be too many frogs. Or a too highly-developed streak of responsibility.

In other words, you feel like you need to eat all the frogs before you allow yourself to do what you really love.

There are good things about that. It’s probably why you’re a great parent or you excel at your job or profession or everyone turns to you when there’s a challenging task that must be done.

But it’s okay to spend some time on what you love even if everything else isn’t finished. Because the reality is–everything else will never be finished.

How to deal with that and not feel too uneasy about your other responsibilities? Pick one day a week when it’s okay to eat dessert first. Or, if that’s too disturbing, to at least eat dessert mid-day.

Allow yourself Monday and Tuesday to focus only on your other responsibilities. Or pick two big frogs a day to eat first. But after those two frogs each day, or when Wednesday comes, take 30 minutes to do what you love.

Shut the door, turn off the phone, sign off the Internet, and write. Immerse yourself in your fictional world. Tell yourself that when you come back, you’ll be that much more effective and capable because you’ll be refreshed and energized. And you know what? It’s true.

Whether you eat frogs or dessert first, I hope this helps you fit in your writing.

Until Friday–

L.M. Lilly

Character And Personality Theories

If you get stuck as you’re creating your characters, try checking out some of the theories of personality and/or personality quizzes on line.

One I’ve found especially helpful is the personality type theory of C.G. Jung as used in the work of Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine C. Briggs.

The four aspects of personality Myers and Briggs talk about are:

• Extraverted/Introverted (E or I)

• Intuiton/Sensing (N or S)

• Thinking/Feeling (I or F)

• Perceiving/Judging (P or J)

Check out these descriptions of the different traits and combinations of traits. Creating characters who fall at opposite ends of the scales for them is a good way to ensure enough conflict in your stories.

Some other personality theories and inventories you may want to check out include:

The Big Five Personality Domains, which covers Extroversion; Agreeableness; Conscientiousness; Neuroticism/Emotional Stability; Openness to Experience
The Hexaco Personality Inventory, which focuses on Honesty-Humility; Emotionality; Extroversion; Agreeableness/Anger; Conscientiousness; and Openness to Experience.
Enneagrams, which divide people into 9 personality types such as Adaptive Peacemaker and Quiet Specialist.

Regardless whether you think these approaches are accurate for people in real life, they can help you figure out your characters.

Until Sunday–

L.M. Lilly

P.S. For more on character development, you can check out my new release Creating Compelling Characters From The Inside Out.

Competition v. Comparisonitis

Today four friends and I spent a few hours on Lake Michigan. We don’t own a boat–we chipped in together at a charity event to share the cost of a cruise. The man who donated it owns a 50-foot yacht, and he took us around the lake.

The experience got me thinking about how often we compare ourselves to others who have more money or success than we do. In the book world, this means looking at authors who’ve sold a little more (or a lot more) and feeling unhappy with our own progress.

The day started when we parked near Belmont Harbor and walked along the docks. I marveled at all the people who have the money to buy and maintain boats.

I checked and Google told me the average price of a 41-45 foot boat is $250,000-$550,000.

As I’m not that much of a lake or outdoor person, I don’t know if there’s any amount I could earn that would make spending that much worth it to me. But I admit to feeling a twinge of envy that there are people who can afford to pay more than my condominium cost for recreation.

The middle part of our cruise involved a stop in a harbor near McCormick Center where a famous 198-foot yacht is docked. You can see it here through the window of the boat we were on. It has 6 cabins for guests and 7 cabins for crew. Its estimated value is $750 million.

The owner of “our” boat laughed at how small his yacht seemed in comparison.

Which is when it hit me–no matter where you are or how well you’re doing, there’s always someone doing better.

Going back to writing and selling books–if you have no books published, you might look at someone with one or two and feel like you’re so far behind.

But when you do publish a first book or a second, rather than congratulate yourself and feel good, it’s easy to immediately compare yourself to people who’ve published a seven-book series or whose books top Amazon best seller lists all the time. If you reach that mark, you might look at people who are New York Times Best Sellers or publish a book every other month.

Or maybe from the start you look at J.K. Rowling or Stephen King and think, “Why am I not there?” Or worse, think “I’ll never get there.”

It can be good to look at someone who’s ahead of us, who’s achieved what we hope to achieve. It motivates us when we’re tired or frustrated, just as runners who race with those faster than them tend to increase their own times. That’s why it’s good to aim a bit beyond wherever you are.

But if you look too far ahead or do it too often, it can be discouraging.

From me to J.K. Rowling is a gap that appears unbridgeable, and the reality is, few writers will ever achieve that level of fame and monetary success, though they may earn a very good living.

So when choosing who to compare yourself to, let your feelings be your guide.

If thinking that someday you could own a castle like J.K. Rowling’s causes you to sit down and write when you don’t feel like it or to research those advertising opportunities, then by all means do it.

But don’t compare yourself to J.K. Rowling if it makes you feel hopeless or that you’re falling short no matter what you do.

Instead, try looking to someone whose writing you like and who has one more book out than you do (even if that person has one and you have none). See what you can learn from that person’s writing or marketing. Set a goal that’s a little higher than you think you can reach and start working.

And don’t forget to write down where you are now and set a time six months or a year down the road to check in on your progress. That way, when you get the book finished and published, or you reach the sales goal you set, you’ll remember where you’ve been and you’ll give yourself credit, rather than looking again to someone else and feeling you’ve fallen short.

And if you don’t quite reach your goal?

That’s valuable feedback, too. Use it figure out what you need to do differently, set a new check in date, and get back to work.

Good luck!

Until Friday–

L.M. Lilly

Making The Most Of A Creative Retreat

Taking part in a creative retreat can enhance your writing process. It can also improve your overall life.

Religious and spiritual people go on retreat to step away from daily life and become more in touch with the divine or their best selves.

If you’re creative, a retreat serves a similar purpose. It allows you a concentrated time to connect with the artist within, to stimulate your mind, and to immerse yourself in your art without distractions.

When, where, how long, and how to structure a retreat can vary. Here are some things to keep in mind:

When Is The Ideal Time To Go On A Retreat?

The best time to attend a retreat is when it won’t cause you too much stress to be away. (This affects the length of the retreat, too–see more below.)

If you’re worried about what’s happening at home or work or feel you’re shirking your responsibilities, you won’t be able to relax and focus.

But if the only way to take part in a retreat is to check on a few projects or do a minimal amount of paid work, don’t let that stop you. If you choose the right environment, you’ll be able to do that without undermining your creativity.

As far as the time of year goes, if you are concerned about your budget, look for (or organize) a retreat in the off-season, also called the “shoulder season” in the travel business. This is the time when most people don’t want to go to a particular place, but it’s still pleasant enough if your plan is mainly to write, engage with other artists, and create.

For instance, if you visit a ski resort in May, you may still find lovely hiking trails and a quaint village nearby, but you will pay lower hotel or condo rates.

I once attended a retreat in Palm Springs a month after spring break. It was very hot out, too hot for most people, so we got a great hotel rate and structured the retreat around the weather. We had indoor meetings and writing during the hottest part of the day. We met outside in the shade in the morning and after dark near the pool.

Where Is The Best Place?

With sites like AirBnB you can go pretty much anywhere in the world, so the “where” has more to do with budget and time. If you have little of both, you can organize or join in a local retreat for a day.

A day may not sound like very long, but simply to focus on your writing for one day without other distractions, and with people who share your love of the written word or of other types of art, can be renewing and give you energy throughout the rest of the year.

One-day locations can include libraries, forest preserves, someone’s home, conference rooms, college campuses, or pretty much anywhere you can host a meeting that allows for enough space.

You will also want to think about what will both stimulate your mind and help you relax, which usually involves a change of place if you can afford it.

Because I live near the heart of downtown Chicago, I like retreats that get me outdoors, ideally near a lake or a river, with somewhere that I can walk. The creative retreat I attended last year had a historic old cemetery that had lovely paths. (Perfect for writing horror.)

If you live in a more rural area, you might find a city with architecture you love or clubs that have live music you can enjoy at night that will help you unwind and feel you’ve stepped out of your day-to-day life.

Remember that you will want some options for recreation. Part of creating is relaxing and enjoying life, and part of getting ideas is feeding your mind and heart and soul.

You’ll also need to be sure your location has resources you’ll need, such as WiFi or a kitchen (if you’re bringing your own food).

How Long Should The Retreat Be?

As mentioned above, you can do a retreat for a day if that’s what’s workable in your budget and timetable.

If you can manage it, though, I find a week away is ideal.

The first day usually is a travel and transition day where you’ll still be thinking about your regular work and life. The next few days you can gradually immerse yourself in whatever projects you’ve chosen to focus on. The last few days allow you to truly unwind and relax, which leads to a return with renewed energy and excitement.

A ten-day or two-week retreat might also work, though for some people being away that long creates anxiety.

It also can become tiring. If you’re in close quarters with a small group, that’s a lot of time to coexist. It’s also a lot of time to be away from the people you care about and usually see in your life. Sometimes, though, especially if you have a particularly stressful work life, two weeks is perfect for getting away.

What Are Some Way To Structure The Retreat?

Unlike conferences, which are typically about attending organized sessions where experts speak, retreats are about getting your own work done.

If you’re looking for critiquing and instruction, you’ll want to find a retreat with other writers who are around your skill level or better and/or that’s run by an instructor from whom you’d like to learn.

For novelists, these types of retreats often involve exchanging 1-3 chapters and perhaps an outline in advance. The participants and instructor critique the pages, usually both in writing and in person. Everyone retreats to their rooms (or their spaces outside) and rewrites for a few hours, then the pages are exchanged and critiqued again.

If you’re looking less for critiquing and more for inspiration and focus, you can look for a retreat that involves exchanging work with others to read but not to critique. This provides accountability to someone else. You can also ask for positive comments only or have the others simply relay back what they recall about the story so you can see if you’ve conveyed what you’d hoped.

This is most helpful if you are a beginning writer and need encouragement and accountability but feel critiques might inhibit your process.

Finally, you can go on a retreat where you don’t share your work at all (or where you and a coauthor work together but don’t share with anyone else). In this type of retreat, there are typically hours throughout the day when participants work on their own projects. They then come together for meals or to unwind and talk at different times during the day.

The advantage of this type of retreat is you clear out the rest of your life to focus on one or two projects. You also have the support and stimulus of talking with other creative people.

I just returned from this kind of retreat. It helped me generate ideas for a second book in my new mystery series and fill in chapters in a book I’m working on about character development. I also learned about string theory and the universe, as the game designers on the retreat are creating a game that includes those concepts. I’m not sure how that will play into my fiction in the future, but I’m sure it will.

All these types of retreats should also provide you time to absorb the creative work of others. I reread two novels (The Dead Zone and Gone Girl) on retreat and annotated them to use as examples in my book on characters. I also started a third novel, a mystery, that I’d never read before.

In my normal life, I can’t read that much.

If you can do a retreat this year or next, please consider it, especially if you’re feeling burnt out or stuck in your writing or you are longing to surge forward and reach a new level.

Until Friday–

L.M. Lilly

P.S. For more about the retreat experience, particularly about feeling as if I were in an almost magical place away from “real life,” check out my author blog from last year’s Rabbit Hole Retreat.

Finding The Right Writing Conference Or Retreat For You

The title of this Friday’s post/recommendation is long, partly because the topic–choosing a writing retreat or conference–is more involved than it first appears.

I decided to post about choosing a retreat or conference because I’m on a creative retreat now. My first idea was to find and link to a comprehensive list describing multiple events and listing the location and cost for each.

It turns out a list of writing conferences, though, is (1) not that hard to find and (2) not that helpful.

Each conference or retreat has pluses and minuses, but those vary depending upon your goals. Likewise, which ones will be most helpful will depend as much on where you are in your writing career as on the quality of the retreat.

Playing Mysterium at the Rabbit Hole Retreat.

So before you do an Internet search or find a listing in a magazine of conferences, I suggest reading this article from The Write Life.

It discusses (a) the difference between a conference and a retreat, (b) general events versus genre-specific ones, (c) fitting your trip into your budget, and (d) figuring out your personal goals for the event.

Until Sunday, when I’ll share more on how to make the most of a creative retreat—

L.M. Lilly

Yoga And Your Writer’s Body

This Friday’s recommendation is not an article to read or a show to listen to.

It’s a suggestion on caring for your body, especially if you work at a job that, like writing, involves time at a keyboard.

Even if we’re careful about posture (and how many of us always are?), if we type a lot during the day for work and then come home to type some more we’re repeating the same motions over and over.

Our hands and shoulders are forward. If we’re not careful, our head may thrust forward as well. Depending on where our screen is in relation to our eyes, our neck may be angled up or down.

If, like me, you’re a fairly fast typist, that may make it all worse. On the one hand, I love that I type quickly by touch. It’s as if I think and the words appear on screen.

Unfortunately, though, being a fast typist makes it harder to remember to interrupt my repetitive motions and instead reach for a mouse or shift position.

For instance, despite the mouse on my left, my default is to navigate using arrows keys on the right. That causes a knot in my right shoulder. The pain shoots up my neck and, on a bad day, can trigger a migraine.

To help alleviate strain, some writers use dictation software, standing desks, or do detailed outlines or early drafts by hand.

Massages, ice or heat, and physical therapy also can be effective.

One of the best ways I’ve found to counter the strain to my neck and shoulders is yoga. Many of the simplest poses are designed to open up the body, counteracting the rounding of the shoulders and releasing the muscles there.

Yoga also encourages better posture and strengthens the muscles that help achieve that.

Most days I do a 25-minute yoga routine, but I’ve found that as little as 15 minutes a day makes a big difference in how well I feel and how long I can write without pain.

There are courses and videos available all over the Internet. I use a series of DVDs by Namaste Yoga and occasionally attend in-person classes. Many books on yoga specifically address neck and back issues.

What exercise works best for you and is right for your body is, of course, something only you can decide, and you should check with your healthcare provider before undertaking a new routine.

Until Sunday, when I’ll talk about Canva, a website that helps you create graphics–

L.M. Lilly

Writing A Novel 15 Minutes At A Time

If you’re writing a novel or planning to, you’d probably love to write every day for 1-4 hours. The reason an hour, or at least 30 minutes, is ideal is that most of us need a few minutes to get focused, immerse ourselves again in our story, and write.

If you only have 15 minutes, though, you can make a lot of progress on your novel, no matter where you are in the process.

Below are 10 suggestions for what to do with 15 minutes:

Scenes

Think about a scene you’re struggling with. What does each character in the scene want?

If the characters’ goals don’t conflict with one another, change one goal so it does and reimagine the scene. Try out any idea for the new goal, no matter how out there. It’s only 15 minutes!

Imagine the next scene you plan write. You probably see it, right? Now engage all your senses.

What do you hear? What do you smell? If your character is eating, how does the food taste? What can your character(s) feel? Is the air warm, freezing, humid?

Think about the last scene you wrote or the next one you plan to write. Imagine that scene from a different character’s point of view.

You may discover it works better, and if it doesn’t, you’ll still have gotten an important perspective on it that will make your original viewpoint richer.

Characters

Brainstorm (or write down) 3 obstacles that block your protagonist from achieving her or his main goal in the novel.

If you already have obstacles to the goal, imagine ways to make those obstacles more formidable.

Imagine your protagonist on a 30-minute coffee date with someone she or he wants to make a good impression on.

What are 3 things your protagonist would make a point to avoid saying about herself or himself?

Same question for your antagonist.

Plot

Midpoints in novels are a challenge for many writers. A Midpoint typically requires a commitment or vow from the main character (think of Scarlett O’Hara vowing to never be hungry again) or a major reversal.

Brainstorm ways your character could make a commitment or suffer a reversal at the Midpoint of your novel.

Beginnings and Endings

Brainstorm first lines for your novel.

If you’re having trouble, remember first lines you’ve loved, search for classic first lines on your phone or laptop for inspiration, or look at books on your shelves if you have access to them right now.

Think about the first scene of your novel (whether you’ve written it yet or not) that features your protagonist. What does the protagonist want in that scene and what is blocking getting it?

If you’re not sure, experiment with different options. If you know, come up with 3 ways to make the character’s goal more significant or the obstacles to achieving it greater.

Brainstorm strong chapter endings.

A good chapter ending urges the reader on to the next chapter. This can be a hint of things to come, an open question (why is the police detective calling the protagonist?), or a genuine cliffhanger.

Finding 15 minutes

The great thing is that you can think or write about most of the above suggestions wherever you are–standing in line, riding a bus, waiting to pick up your child from school, walking to or from the store (though be careful not to bump into anyone).

If you’re about to check your email or social media account and there’s no need to do so, you can think or write for a few minutes instead.

Also, if you just got home from work or put your two-year-old down for a nap and you feel too worn out to write, you can choose an option from the list above to consider.

If all you do is think about it for 15 minutes, you’ll have made progress on your novel. If it reenergizes you and you’re able to carve out some more time to write, that’s a bonus.

Until Friday–

Best,

L.M. Lilly

P.S. For help plotting a few simple points so you make the best use of your writing time, you may want to check out Super Simple Story Structure: A Quick Guide To Plotting And Writing Your Novel (available in audio, workbook, and ebook editions).

Beats Explained

If you read comments in online writing groups, listen to podcasts, or read articles or blogs on the writing process, you’ve likely heard authors talk about beats.

A writer might say of a novel she’s planning, “I’ve written out the beats.” An author giving advice might mention the importance of beats.

If you’re not quite certain what a “beat” includes, you’re not alone. Having written multiple novels plus a book on story structure, it’s embarrassing to admit I didn’t really understand this word everyone was throwing around. Outlines, plot points, scenes, yes. “Beats,” no.

Happily, in this episode of How Story Works, author and story expert Lani Diane Rich explains beats.

First, she talks about a narrative unit, which is a series of events that has meaning. So a beat, a scene, and a story are all narrative units. Second, a beat is the smallest narrative unit. So scenes are made up of beats. Stories are made up of scenes.

Lani also illustrates exactly what a beat is and what it does, which is what I found most helpful. Using a scene from a work in progress, she pauses after every beat to discuss why it’s a beat and what it accomplishes or shows.

https://chipperish.com/2017/07/31/hsw-19-beats-all-the-way-down/

I hope this helps you plan or revise your own scenes and stories.

Until Sunday–

Best,

L.M. Lilly

Characters And Competing Goals

Whether you’re writing a mystery or another type of novel, you need characters with competing goals to create conflict. Author Hallie Ephron stressed this point at ThrillerFest earlier this month.

Keeping tension strong and readers engaged requires more than one character who opposes your protagonist.

Yes, you need a strong antagonist (and/or a strong villain in a thriller, mystery, or suspense novel). But other characters also should have agendas contrary to that of your protagonist.

Echoing Ephron’s advice, the first agent I spoke to about my new mystery series asked immediately, “Who’s working against your protagonist?”

Evil Not Necessary

Working against doesn’t mean that all the other characters are evil, though some might be, or don’t support the protagonist in other ways. Ephron notes that other characters can and should work both for and against your main character for their own reasons.

For example, in a novel with a protagonist sleuth, the sleuth’s best friend and spouse may vehemently urge abandoning an investigation that puts their loved one in danger.

What Do Your Characters Want?

Other characters should have goals that are admirable but require them to thwart the protagonist’s actions. Sara Paretsky’s Tunnel Vision includes a great example of this.

A friend of private eye V.I. Warshawski runs a women-owned construction company. She struggles to get work, and when her company is finally awarded a contract, V.I.’s investigation threatens that. It would be one thing if the friend were convinced that something wrong or dangerous was really going on. But when V.I. offers what appears to be mere speculation, the friend is understandably angry and works against VI.

Your Story

As you plot and write your novel, look at each character in your protagonist’s orbit. Is each person working for your protagonist? Against? Both, but in different ways?

If everyone’s working to help the protagonist, there’s probably not enough conflict.

On the other hand, if everyone’s working against the protagonist, particularly if they all have nefarious motives, you may have too much of a black hat/white hat situation. Try changing a few characters so their goals are ones the reader can identify with and root for despite that they are in conflict with the protagonist’s aims.

It may help to list each character, what that person wants, and whether it means the person works for or against the protagonist.

Remember that a character can have one goal that’s supportive and one that’s in conflict. In fact, in my view, those are the most interesting characters to write and read about.

What are your favorite examples of characters with strong goals that are contrary to a protagonist’s? Feel free to share in the comments.

Until Friday, when I’ll recommend a way to understand narrative beats–

Best,

L.M. Lilly

P.S. For more on character development, you can check out my new release Creating Compelling Characters From The Inside Out.

Strong Characters And Stephen King

While being known as the Master of Horror, what many readers love about Stephen King is not how scary his books are but how he writes characters whose lives and stories matter. A great place to explore how King creates compelling and memorable characters is the Stephen King Cast.

The podcast explore and reviews each King book and often covers the movie adaptation as well in a follow-up episode.

I’m tempted to recommend two episodes about The Dead Zone because that’s my personal favorite of all of King’s novels. But an even better episode for learning about creating compelling characters is The Shining movie episode. (If you have time, listen to the book review episode as well.)

In The Shining movie review, the host of the Stephen King Cast compares the book and the movie. This comparison includes rating each major character in the book versus the same character in the movie, voting on which works better, and giving specific reasons why.

STEPHEN KING CAST THE SHINING (THE MOVIE)

What’s so valuable is that the Stephen King Cast host speaks as a reader and a viewer rather than as an author, as in the end it’s readers who decide what stories are most compelling.

Until Sunday, when I’ll talk about creating conflict through characters with competing goals.

Best,

L.M. Lilly

P.S. If you’re struggling with developing characters, you can also check out Writing As A Second Career’s Free Character Creation Tip Sheet for questions to ask yourself that might help.